Activists plan Notre Dame protest

Anti-abortion activists at the University of Notre Dame have planned a series of at least six demonstrations and other events for Sunday to protest the school’s selection of President Barack Obama to deliver the commencement address.

“Any person willing to respectfully and constructively demonstrate their disapproval of the university’s decision to honor President Obama at commencement is welcomed to stand alongside students at this rally,” one of the organizers, Notre Dame Response, wrote in a statement on its website, NDResponse.com.

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Obama tends to confront opposition head-on, and White House aides said they expect the president to address the complaints of students, faculty and other Catholics angry that the largest Catholic university in the country will be addressed by a commencement speaker who supports a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

Several websites are rallying opposition to Obama’s appearance.

NotreDameScandal.com has registered 362,608 online signatures on a petition calling for the school’s president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, to withdraw the invitation for Obama to speak.

“Notre Dame has chosen prestige over principles, popularity over morality. Whatever may be President Obama’s admirable qualities, this honor comes on the heels of some of the most anti-life actions of any American president, including expanding federal funding for abortions and inviting taxpayer-funded research on stem cells from human embryos,” the petition states.

Another website asks supporters to say rosaries and register them on a counter. More than 87,000 have been tallied.

Although Obama is an abortion rights supporter, he played down the abortion issue during his campaign, and he won the Catholic vote.

In a new Quinnipiac University survey, 60 percent of Catholic voters said they would oppose a decision by Notre Dame to rescind its invitation for Obama to speak; 34 percent said they would support such a move.